How Data And Mobile Money Ate Africa’s Top Telcos' Longtime Cash Cow
· WeeTrackerHow Data And Mobile Money Ate Africa’s Top Telcos’ Longtime Cash Cow
By
Henry Nzekwe
| May 8, 2026
For decades, the mobile phone in Africa meant one thing to telcos: voice minutes. That era is ending. Across the continent, data and digital financial services have surpassed traditional calling as the primary growth engines, and the latest batch of financial results signals a fundamental shift in how millions of people across the continent now communicate and manage their finances.
Airtel Africa, which operates in 14 sub-Saharan countries, reported full-year 2026 revenue of USD 6.4 B in results released Friday. The company’s customer base reached 183.5 million, but the real story is where the money came from. Data has become Airtel’s largest revenue contributor, with data revenue growing 35.2% in constant currency, fueled by smartphone penetration rising to 49.5%.
Each customer now consumes 8.9GB of data per month, up from 7GB a year ago. Meanwhile, Airtel Money, the company’s mobile money arm, grew its customer base 21.3% to 54.1 million people, processing annualised transactions worth over USD 215 B in the final quarter alone.
Airtel is not alone in this transition. Safaricom, Kenya’s biggest telecom operator, released its financials, Thursday showing its mobile data business overtook voice calls for the first time in the year ended March 2026. Data accounted for 42.1% of the company’s connectivity revenue, narrowly edging out voice at 41.3%.
Data revenue rose 14.4% to USD 646 M, while voice revenue grew just 1.3%. Messaging revenue plummeted nearly 12% as users migrated to WhatsApp and other internet-based platforms.
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Average monthly data consumption per subscriber climbed 16.6% to 4.92GB, and the number of customers using more than 1GB of mobile data monthly jumped 22.4%. To keep usage growing, Safaricom has leaned into lower pricing; average rates per megabyte dropped 12.1% during the year, but heavier internet usage more than made up the difference.
MTN Group is following a similar trajectory. The continent’s largest telecom operator, operating in 16 African markets, returned to profit in 2025, with group service revenue rising 22.9% on a reported basis to USD 13.6 B. Data revenue jumped 37.7%, and fintech revenue rose 30%, the company reported. MTN served 307.2 million customers and recorded 23.3 billion mobile money transactions in 2025. Average monthly data use per customer hit 12.5 GB, up from 10.8 GB the previous year.
Two forces are driving this transformation, mainly. First, smartphone penetration is rising steadily, now at nearly 50% across Airtel’s footprint, enabling millions more people to access the internet affordably. Meanwhile, Safaricom reported 33.2 million smartphones connected to its network, up 21.2%.
Second, mobile money has moved far beyond basic person-to-person transfers into savings, lending, insurance and merchant payments, embedding itself directly into daily commerce.
It’s a necessary pivot for telecom operators. Voice revenue, long the industry’s bedrock, has flatlined across most markets due to price competition and saturation. OTT platforms like WhatsApp and Zoom have eaten into traditional calling and messaging revenues, forcing telcos to find new streams. Data and fintech have answered that call.